Circling Through This Life

Today is December 6.  Many people around the world celebrate December 6 as St. Nicholas Day.   I don't ever remember not knowing that December 6 is Saint Nicholas Day.  I knew that our American Santa Claus has its roots in the very real St. Nicholas of Myra.  Growing up we didn't have a fireplace, so my sister and I didn't hang traditional stockings or put out our shoes on December 6th.  We did, however, lay out our own socks on December 24th.  Real socks. Not Christmas Stockings. That means they were little girl socks so not very big.  My other always put an orange in them and sometimes chocolate.  I didn't realize at the time that oranges and chocolate were very traditional St. Nicholas gifts. Are you familiar with the stories and legends surrounding St. Nicholas of Myra?  St. Nicholas of Myra was a real historical figure though not much is known about him.  One story is about how he gave coins to a poor widower for daughters' do...

I rarely put up guest posts on my blog but when I found out that my daughter was the first person to read aloud Catherine’s Pascha to a young child I just had to get my daughter to talk about it.  The author, Charlotte Riggle, a dear friend, loved the idea of Tailorbear sharing her experience.  Here is Tailorbear’s blog post: Catherine's Pascha is a wonderful new children's book written by Charlotte Riggle and Illustrated R.J. Huges . I had the pleasure of reading it aloud to a child I was babysitting while her mother and brother baked cookies with Mrs. Riggle. The story was sweet and enjoyable. I love how Catherine seems so very eager to stay awake for the service and how she and her best friend Elizabeth are allowed to sit next to each other. I love how the service is very accurate! I loved how things were described and even though there were words I couldn't pronounce it was still really easy to understand! I think it showed a lot about culture as well. I also lov...

Food plays an enormous role in our Christmas celebrations. We don’t just eat special foods on Christmas Eve or Christmas but we spread out special foods from December 24th through January 6th.  We don’t always eat the same foods on the same day each year but we do eat the same foods or this year a variation of the same foods. Every year we have Buffalo Style Chicken Wings . I think these are the best chicken wings in the universe and the only ones that come close are the ones from Buffalo Wild Wings.  Seriously, these are good.  Crispy, flavorful, and you make it as hot or mild as you like. We started out making these for Christmas Eve and then switched it over to New Year’s Eve. They’re great for Super Bowl Parties, if you do those kinds of things.  They’re also wonderful as a special movie night “junk food” dinner meal. I had to modify the 8 Minute Cheesecake this year to make it work for my husband and I. Same basic idea *but* I used heavy cream and whipped it ...

As I said earlier this week, we have tended towards a year-round/take-as-much-time as-we-need approach to home schooling when the girls were younger. There is just something about taking a least a couple of weeks off at the end of summer before beginning a new school year. We’re odd ducks here because I call it the first day of school and it is the start of a new school calendar but we might not actually be starting new curriculum. We might just be picking up where we left off. (For Turtlegirl, especially, we are not really starting anything new in September.)  But I want there to be something different.  Something special.  Something that marks the changing of one school year to another. One thing that I have always done was, to quote Turtlegirl, “pass out pretty new school supplies like new pencils and notebooks.  That’s always my favorite.”  BooBear remembers that back when we used Sonlight I would often save “Box Day,” the opening of the box with all the ...

Thursday was the first day of spring so I’m tempted to call this the 1st Day of Spring Edition.  Been a busy busy week here! 1.  Tuesday Honeybear and I made an unplanned trip to Urgent Care.  He’s fine.  But it was a good thing we went.  His finger had been sore and bothering him and was clearly infected.  It’s gross so I didn’t take any pictures.  Trust me, infected fingers are not pretty.  Honeybear and his finger are doing much better now.  Finger is looking much better as the antibiotics do their job. 2.  On Wednesday I made a Vegetable “Beef” Soup.  I wanted it to be lower in carbs so I used the trick of using radishes instead of potatoes.  Carrots, onion, celery, mushrooms, radishes, turnips, rutabaga, diced tomatoes, and cabbage in a vegetable broth. The girls really liked it.  The radishes really do make a great substitute for potatoes but they they awhile to  cook.  I think I should write a blog post ...

I’m a coffee in the morning person but I’m not a coffee in the afternoon person. Nope. Maybe it’s because I did a study abroad in England while in college and feel in love with “real tea”.  (That Lipton tea is not not not not real tea in my opinion!)  One of my favorite memories of my time in England was the tea break during our 2 hour Tues/Thurs afternoon class. Class started at 2pm and promptly at 3pm we would have our tea break.  The tea lady pushed a small cart containing a tea pot, cups and biscuits.  For 10p (pence) you could get a nice cup of tea.  For 10p more you could get a biscuit or two to go with it. On Mondays and Wednesdays I would get a cup of tea in the afternoon at the commons. And on days off and week-ends I would enjoy a cup of tea in the afternoon when studying. When the girls were young we had “tea time” in the afternoon.  I, of course, had real tea with milk and sugar and they usually had juice.  During this time I would read ...

These yummy little half potatoes are a cross between twice baked potatoes and traditional potato skins.  They make a great appetizer and awesome served with Buffalo Style Chicken Wings .  I’m not a football fan, but if I were and I was hosting a Super Bowl game watching event I’d be serving some of these Deluxe Potato Skins along with those wings and other finger foods.  This is one of my family’s favorites when we plan a finger food or “junk food” night supper. They’re becoming a tradition with our movie/episode marathon weekends. I liked using smaller potatoes for these since they have a potato filling.  When I make more traditional potato skins that are just topped with cheese, bacon bits, and chives, I like the potatoes to be bigger. First we (yes I had my my girls helping!) scrubbed, pierced and baked the potatoes. I like to make sure that these are very tender.  It’s no fun trying to mash up the filling when it isn’t soft enough.  Let the potatoes...

I do celebrate Christmas.  This isn’t a post about why you shouldn’t celebrate or that Christ wasn’t really born on December 25 or that Christmas is pagan.  Nope.  I spent a few years in the “Christmas-is-pagan-therefore-we-can’t-celebrate-it” camp. That is a whole ‘nother topic for another blog post and not one I want to tackle today. Instead I want to share about my journey from celebrating Christmas to not celebrating Christmas back to celebrating Christmas and what Christmas means for my family. It’s a heart to heart about why we celebrate Christmas and why it’s important to us. I grew up Catholic. (Yes, Roman Catholic. though there are several “ rites” that are in communion with or fall under the Bishop of Rome . The largest is the Roman Rite which is the one that most people think of when they think “catholic”.) We always celebrated Christmas which included attending mass, though we usually did that on Christmas Eve (the 4:30 service though I always wanted to go ...

We are a game loving family and part of our Christmas holiday tradition is playing games during the 12 days of Christmas. Dad takes time off from work and we have lovely days of sitting around munching food and playing games.  We do something similar at Thanksgiving as well. It’s also become a tradition that there is a least one new game under the tree. With Christmas coming up fast [in just a few days!!] I thought I would share a list of games that we love, some of which have been Christmas presents. Wits-n-Wagers Family Edition ~  We reviewed this one crew year and it quickly became a family favorite.  Say Anything Family Edition ~ Like Wits-n-Wagers, this game is from NorthStar Games and we had the privilege of reviewing it for the crew. We can all play this as a family as well but we did have to modify it a bit in order to include Supergirl. 10 Days Games  from Out of the Box: Engaging Games ~  We purchased these years ago, there are several. We ha...

A large number of retail stores have announced that they will open on Thanksgiving. I think I read that Kmart plans to stay open for something like 41 hours straight for their Black Friday sales.  Really?  Seriously?  41 hours? I won’t be shopping on Thanksgiving .  I highly doubt that I’ll go shopping at all over the weekend.  I’ve never been a fan of Black Friday sales.  Maybe it’s because my first job was in retail?  Maybe it’s because I don’t really like shopping?  It isn’t because I don’t like saving money and it certainly isn’t because I don’t like buying gifts. I could blame it on not having any money to spend but some years I have had money to spend and still didn’t participate in Black Friday sales (and those were in the days when stores were actually closed on Thanksgiving and didn’t open until Friday morning, you know, after sunrise). But this post isn’t about Black Friday sales on Friday.  This post is about shopping on Thanksgiv...

Tomorrow night is New Year’s Eve.  Growing up, my mom always made her cheeseball and she would serve other snack food like cheese, salami, and crackers. I don’t remember if we had a real dinner or not. When my husband and I got married we began the “junk food instead of dinner” tradition on New Year’s Eve.   It didn’t really start though until our 2nd New Year’s.  We had homemade buffalo wings.  I had just learned how to make them!  The following year we added homemade egg rolls to the menu.  We haven’t done those for a long time.  They are fabulous but hard work and four girls in less than 4 years meant giving up some of the harder items. This year’s menu includes a NEW item.  We were introduced to Mexican Dip on Christmas Day and liked it so much that we’re adding it to our Junk Food Tradition.  Other menu items include the now required buffalo wings, home made chex mix,  my mother’s cheeseball (made by my daughter using my mom’...

As I type this, I feel as though my heart is just going to burst.  15 years ago my husband and I began a journey to find more meaning in our walk with Christ.  We wanted Christmas to be truly focused on Christ.  We began to study and search. We only wanted those customs that pointed to Christ.  We came to the conclusion that Christmas was pagan and that the best way to honor Him would be to STOP celebrating Christmas. This left such a hole in my heart.  I loved Christmas. Christmas was always about the birth of Christ. It wasn’t that we denied the virgin birth.  It wasn’t that we didn’t acknowledge that the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among mankind.  It’s that we thought it was wrong to have Christmas trees and wreaths and all those other “pagan” items. In our defense we were just trying to serve Him with glad and grateful hearts.  He gave us a miracle in Supergirl and we wanted to honor the God of the universe for His love towards us. ...

I know for many many people Christmas seems to begin on the evening of Thanksgiving and ends on the evening of Christmas.  If I started celebrating Christmas that early, I’d be way past done with it, too! What amazes me though is that so many people seem to think that the 12 days of Christmas begin 12 days before December 25 and end on December 25.  Nope.  Lots of people do Christmas countdowns (we do!) but the actual 12 days of Christmas begins on December 25 and ends on January 5 and Theophany (Epiphany) is on January 6th. When I was growing up we put the Christmas tree up a week to 10 days before Christmas and it stayed up at least until the Saturday after New Year’s Day.  We didn’t exactly celebrate for 12 days but there was the acknowledgement that this wonderful feast was longer than just 1 day and that it didn’t begin until December 25.  (Though I will point out that liturgically it begins at Vespers, the evening service, on December 24 because liturgic...

With Thanksgiving just two weeks and 2 days away my family has begun to list suggestions for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Supergirl, my developmentally disabled daughter has a strong opinion of what needs to be served for Thanksgiving: Pickles, carrots (carrots???), cranberries, and stuffing.  “Lots of stuffing,” she tells me, “because it’s my favorite.” Today is Day 2  of the Preparing for the Holidays Blog Hop hosted by the Schoolhouse Review Crew.  Today’s topic:  Cooking, of course! First let’s chat about Thanksgiving.  We have a nearly set menu for Thanksgiving: a combo of traditions from his family, my family, and traditions we’ve started as our family. We start our Thanksgiving morning with some type of breakfast roll: Cinnamon, Carmel, or some variation.  I’d love to brag about how they are homemade and made from freshly ground wheat but they’re not.  They come from a can.  We only make them once a year so I don’t worry too much abou...

Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is  2 1/2  weeks away and Christmas is just around the corner.  Many people are preparing for the holidays or at least thinking about preparing for the holidays.  The Schoolhouse Review Crew is hosting a 5 Day Blog Hop:  Preparing for the Holidays: Day 1 is Decorating.   I don’t just want to talk about Decorating for Christmas because I don’t just celebrate Christmas.  I celebrate Thanksgiving, St Nicholas Day, Christmas,  New Year’s Day, and Theophany.  Grab a cup of hot cocoa, or spiced cider, or hot tea, something that puts you in the mood for fall/winter festivities as we take a stroll through my decorating traditions from late October though January 6. For me the start of the decorating season begins a day or two or three before Halloween.  As I said in a previous post , I don’t really decorate for Halloween.  I do, however, like to decorate for fall.  I love the colors and I love th...

Yes, I know I am really behind on my blogging through the alphabet.  I started a post but didn’t finish it E is for Evergreen and F is for fall.  It won’t be linked up but I do intend to polish it and get it posted.  I don’t even have a topic for G but I’m sure I’ll think of something and again, It won’t be linked up but I am really striving to do a post or a combination post for every letter of the alphabet this time! This is the last day for linking up the letter H.  I was thinking of doing H is for health but I didn’t want to write a whining post about my health problems and I didn’t want to do the whole don’t take health for granted so I dumped that idea.  I moved on to H is for Hope.   I thought ‘oh I’ll do a post about how Christ is my hope!  I’ll find some bible verses and I’ll post on Sunday.’  It’s a good idea but I still have the doxology going through my mind and it’s lingering on the line “Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, acco...

The air has turned crisp. Leaves are beginning to change from green to gold, yellow, and red. Yellow school buses visit in the early morning and clog up traffic later in the afternoon. Children have started going back to school. We don’t necessarily follow a traditional September to June school year but I do usually make some sort of “back to school” type tradition in September that often involves fresh new school supplies and photographs. Not this year though.  I mean we did do “senior pictures” for BooBear because <gasp> she is a senior.  But here we are at the END of September and we’ve not really had a “back to school day”  Or a “Not back to school” since we’re home schooling and we don’t “go” away to another place. It could be that Fall and September just snuck up on me.  But I think it is more than that.  We did take 3 weeks off in July/August for a “summer break” but it didn’t FEEL like a break   Why didn’t it feel like a break?  ...

I have dutifully celebrated the 5th day of May every year for 44 years.  My remembrance each year has absolutely nothing to do with Mexico.  It does, however have everything to do with parties and anniversaries and remembering an event! On May 5th 1936 in the hills of Kentucky a son was born to Woodrow and Elsie.  And many years later that son got a really cool birthday present.  His niece was born on May 5th 1960.  Just a few months before his own son would be born.  How cool is that to get a niece for a birthday present?  (I would think almost as cool as getting twin daughters 8 days before your birthday.  Honeybear’s birthday is just 1 week and 1 day after the twins’s birthday.) My daddy would be 76 years old today.  So while many Americans celebrate an obscure Mexican holiday (really isn’t it just an excuse to eat Tex-Mex food.  I seriously never even heard of Cinco De Mayo until 8 or 9 years ago and only among major fans of Mexica...

Although Great Lent doesn’t begin until Monday (tomorrow), we’ve been in a pre-lenten mode.  Last Sunday was meatfare Sunday also known as the Sunday of Final Judgement.  The following day we began the meatfast or cheesefare week.  Orthodox Christians abstain from meat (except fish) during this but may partake of dairy, eggs and fish.  Lent is so much more than just a fast.  It is a spiritual journey: an opportunity for reflection and a time of renewal.  We all stray from the path.  We all get caught up in the daily cares of the world.  Lent provides the framework for re-training our flesh to seek first the Kingdom of God.  The fast isn’t just about abstaining from certain foods.  It’s a training ground for taking back control of our flesh.  Today is Forgiveness Sunday .  It is the day we remember Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden.  It is the day we stand before our brothers and sisters and ask for forgiveness. ...

Just a brief little note to wish all my bloggy friends a Happy New Year.  And to all my Orthodox readers  Happy Feast of St. Basil!  What a joy and a blessing to hear the service for the cutting of St. Basil’s bread after Divine Liturgy this morning.  Alas, no one in my family found the coin.  (Want to know more about what I am talking about?  Check out these articles Vasilopita and/or Basil the Great ).  This is more of a Greek Orthodox tradition but I am glad that my Orthodox Church in America (which has Russian Orthodox roots) has this custom. May God pour out His blessings on us in 2012!